"Evan is such a snitch," said Meghan, after learning that he had told Mom about the trouble she had gotten into in class.

Are you a word wiz?

How old do you think the word "snitch" is?

A. Very old; it goes back to the times of knights and castles.

B. Old; it appeared during the lifetime of Sir Isaac Newton.

C. Somewhat old; it was first used during the American Revolution.

D. Not very old at all; it was coined by Mark Twain.

If you didn't choose C, we won't tell. "Snitch" made its first appearance in print in the late 1700s, around the time that Paul Revere told on the redcoats and warned his countrymen the British were coming. No one knows for certain how "snitch" came to be used to refer to a tattletale -- or no one's telling. We do know that English speakers began using "snitch" as a verb meaning "inform, tattle" in the early 1800s. And in the early 1900s, people began using it to mean "to take by sly or secret action; especially, pilfer."